How did this pilot fly a Cessna alone from Merced to Honolulu?

MODESTO, Calif. ( KSEE/KGPE ) – When getting planes delivered across the ocean, pilot Tom Lopes says there are two ways: putting it on a boat or flying the plane there. He prefers the second option.

“When it gets over there it hasn’t been disassembled, hasn’t been put in a crate, it’s got no dents or dings in it,” Lopes said. “It’s exactly how it came out of the factory, it’s essentially a new airplane.”

Tom Lopes rose to viral fame in aviation circles last week when he piloted a Cessna 172 from Merced to Honolulu. The Cessna 172 has a standard range of around 700 miles, but the distance Tom Lopes flew it from Merced to Honolulu is around 2,400 miles. The feat was done by packing as much available space inside the aircraft with fuel tanks to complete the 17-hour journey.

Lopes says he’s been flying since before he had a driver’s license, starting with crop dusting planes.

“I got into aviation when I was like 14 years old,” Lopes said. “We lived across the street from an airport and I would sit on the fence and watch airplanes come and go.”

Lopes says his fascination with flying led him to start working as a crop duster in his early 20s and eventually he got into delivering planes by flying them to their owners.

Lopes’ most recent delivery flight from Merced to Hawaii was in a plane similar to those he first learned to fly in, a Cessna 172.

According to Lopes, his recent delivery to Honalulu was taking the Cessna to George’s Aviation Services in Hawaii for it to be used on private charter tours, flight school instruction, and aircraft rentals.

But Lopes says the journey starts way before he enters the cockpit.

“That 172 flight takes quite a bit of advanced planning,” Lopes said. “It’s actually coordinated months in advance and there’s a lot of paperwork, permits, approvals, and insurance companies. Everything is aboveboard.”

Lopes says he also has to take into consideration what he refers to as the “biological aspects to flying.”

“You’re not going to eat big, heavy dinners the day before,” Lopes said.

The rest of the 18-hour trip is easy according to Lopes, he says he’s trained many years to focus diligently on checking into air traffic control, doing field transfers, and flight planning. He says even if he wanted to, he couldn’t afford to lose focus.

“I’ve just come to be very alert in that cockpit,” Lopes said. “I do a lot of canned coffee along the way and so you got that which kind of keeps you awake, but it doesn’t matter because you’ve got plenty you’re doing.”

Lopes does say he will have some tunes playing lightly in the background but doesn’t let himself relax too much until the last two hours of the flight.

“When everything is just kind of done and you know you’re just cruising. That’s kind of when you’re going to get tired.”

Luckily, Lopes says he is allowed to take a long rest after his work is done. He was treated to some Hawaiian hospitality once he landed in the form of a great feast from George’s Aviation, and flew back home from Hawaii as a passenger on a commercial plane.

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